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Marques Carroll

Chicago based trumpeter Marques Carroll is keeping the tradition of jazz alive while pushing the genre forward into exciting new territory. A bold performer and passionate educator, he is dedicated to preserving the authentic culture of jazz and spreading his holistic love of music around the world.

Born into a musical family in St. Louis, Marques fell in love with the trumpet when he was only 8 years old. His grandfather worked with jazz legend Clark Terry who would become a major influence on the young musician. Marques grew up absorbing the blues of Louis Armstrong and the laid back sounds of Miles Davis, eventually going on to study jazz performance at DePaul University. He expanded his palette to include classical and hip-hop influences, making him a throughly modern and versatile musician.

Marques has worked and shared the stage with jazz powerhouses like Carmen Bradford, Dee Dee Bridgewater (Count Basie Band), Etienne Charles, Christian McBride, Jon Faddis, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Randy Weston (Chicago Jazz Ensemble). Marques’ compositions are soulful explorations of culture and consciousness. A storyteller at heart, he uses his horn to break down barriers between genres, writing evocative music that speaks directly to the soul. “Every instrument plays a character,” Marques says, describing his methods. “I want people to open their minds to what the story is about. Every piece I write is purposeful.”

In addition to his prolific performing career, Marques is an accomplished educator. He is musical director for Chicago Jesuit Academy, and regularly holds clinics and master classes around the country. Marques is the leader of the Trumpet Summit and co-leader of the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, and also a permanent sub-member of The Count Basie Orchestra. His solo debut record, The Ancestors’ Call, is now available everywhere.

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Album Review

Paul Marinaro: Not Quite Yet

Read "Not Quite Yet" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Singer Paul Marinaro issued his acclaimed debut album Without A Song (122 Myrtle Records) in 2013. Seven years after the release of his follow-up, “One Night In Chicago" (122 Myrtle Records), and with almost a decade of performing from coast to coast at top-end clubs, including New York's Birdland, he has released Not Quite Yet, which is devoted to exploring timeless themes, such as life, love and the search for lasting connections. Accompanying Marinaro are longtime band members guitarist Mike ...

7
Album Review

Paul Marinaro: Not Quite Yet

Read "Not Quite Yet" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


The cover of the album is vaguely noir, with the urban greenish cast of tungsten film. A sole figure leans slightly against a building, downcast, staring into his soul, and waiting out a lit cigarette when it was still hip to smoke. The guy is Frank Sinatra and the album was In The Wee Small Hours. The year is 1955. It is difficult to believe that jny: Chicago-based vocalist Paul Marinaro has even been born, but clearly, Sinatra will make ...

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Album Review

Marques Carroll: The Ancestors' Call

Read "The Ancestors' Call" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This is the debut album from Chicago-based trumpeter Marques Carroll and he uses it to address very specific concerns—the ongoing struggle for identity and freedom that African-Americans have been going through in the USA for centuries. He does this in compositions that represent a dialogue between generations, music that reaches back to the spiritual jazz of the Sixties as well as touching on the hip-hop, soul and Latin rhythms of today. On the opening “The Ancestors' Call Upon ...

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Album Review

Chicago Soul Jazz Collective: It Takes a Spark to Start a Fire

Read "It Takes a Spark to Start a Fire" reviewed by John Pietaro


Solace. Listening to classic 1960s soul-jazz as an escape from today's stresses united the musicians who founded the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective. Many of us know of that comfort, the one carried by a cursory view of nostalgia. But don't look too close. Tenor saxophonist John Fournier and trumpet player Marques Carroll built a band on this foundation, exploring the canon. Their sophomore effort is an album of urban tinder and smoke signals, recorded on vintage equipment. The final product ...

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